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What do these Mississippi counties have in common? Benton, Calhoun, Carroll, Choctaw, Claiborne, Covington, Franklin, Greene, Issaquena, Jasper, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Monroe, Montgomery, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Panola, Quitman, Scott, Sharkey, Smith Tippah, Webster, Wilkinson and Yazoo?

In the past couple of years, 89% of them have had boil water alerts or low water pressure that have left thousands of residents without useable drinking water.

They are also the counties where Consumer Reports is trying to recruit volunteers to test the quality of their communities’ water.

Consumer Reports and Mississippi Spotlight – a consortium of news organizations in the state along with Jackson State University -- are partnering to test water systems across Mississippi with volunteers who will use a special testing kit to take samples that will then be analyzed in a lab for any heavy metals or PFAS. We will share individual results with volunteers once the testing is complete.

When testing is done, it may detect heavy metals. In 2015, high levels of lead appeared in the drinking water in Jackson, Mississippi’s capital city. Since then, two-thirds of all water samples have contained at least a trace amount of the metal.

More than 30 million Americans live where water systems have violated safety rules. That problem is even more acute in Mississippi, which is filled with small, often antiquated water systems. Of the state’s 1,200 public water systems, about 70% are rural systems serving 1,000 homes or less, most of which were built in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Some communities provide no water at all, forcing residents to turn to well water, which often goes without testing.

In Schlater, a town in Leflore County, residents lost their well in historic flooding in 2019 and were without water for more than year. On Aug. 26, 2020, they finally received federal funding to break ground on a new well. Families had to heat  up donated water to bathe and wash dishes, and had to pour water into toilets to flush them.

Leflore County is among the areas where Consumer Reports has recruited a volunteer but needs more. Others where it needs additional volunteers are:

Adams, Chickasaw, Clay, Holmes, Humphreys, Itawamba, Leflore, Lincoln, Lowndes, Marion, Perry, Stone, Tallahatchie, Tunica, Wayne and Yalobusha counties.

Would you like to help us test the water in your community? Is there a story about water quality where you live that you would like to share with us?

Volunteer To Be A Water Tester

Please get in touch through this form, hosted by our partners Consumer Reports. Your responses are secure as the form is secure, and only we and Consumer Reports will have access to your contributions.

Tell Us About Your Water Supply Experiences

In addition to testing, we want to hear from readers who have a story to tell about their drinking water. If you have a story that one of our reporters should check out, please respond in this form.

This report was produced in partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi’s local news collaborative, which is independently funded in part by Microsoft Corp. The collaborative includes the Clarion Ledger, the Jackson Advocate, Jackson State University, Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Mississippi Today.